Where can I find traditional third-order Carmelites?

[gwendolyn]

I attend my diocese’s Tridentine Latin Mass. I have been searching tirelessly for a third order of Carmel that is within the Church but also traditional and cannot find any. I then searched for the same with Dominicans and found none. I am now assuming there are no traditional groups out there unless they have broken with the Church into their own new group. My priest suggested to me not to join one of these groups but to wait for one to come up within the Church. He is very hopeful it will happen in the near future. It was also suggested to me by an independent group of Carmelite nuns that I had inquired into that I might live the Carmelite rule myself until that time when the Carmelites allow the traditional ways again within the Church. Is this possible, or rather is it “approved”? Would I be sinning or be in the wrong if I were to wear the larger scapular and to consider myself a member and live the rule without formal permission?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

I will answer your question as best I can, but perhaps you may also wish to talk to a Carmelite priest or nun who is not “independent” but in full communion with the Church and with an approved Carmelite order.

I think the question that should take precedence in your discernment process is whether or not you want to actually be a Carmelite. Many people are attracted to Carmelite spirituality, love Carmelite saints, and appreciate the contributions of the Carmelites to the Church, but they are not necessarily suited to be Carmelites (i.e., members of the order according to their state in life). This may sound like a paradox but being a lay member of a religious order such as the Carmelites is not like joining a club but is instead agreeing to take on a way of life; taking on that way of life does not mean doing so on one’s own but by aspiring to be a member of an approved Carmelite community.

In the Carmelites, those laypeople who are members of a Carmelite order make a promise before their Carmelite community and a delegate of the Carmelite order to live the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, in a manner appropriate to their lay state. If, for example, a person cannot in conscience promise to strive for the obedience appropriate to a lay member of a religious order, then he should not seek membership. While anyone can wear the small brown scapular that is a popular sacramental of the Church, the larger brown scapular you refer to is a sign of membership in the Carmelite order and non-members should not presume to wear it.

I say all this as prelude to your concern about finding a “traditional” third order of Carmel. To be a Carmelite, it is necessary for an aspirant to be willing to be taught and formed by fellow members of the order entrusted with that task. If a person is unteachable, according to the norms and charism of the religious order he aspires to, that is a sign that he is not called to that order. In other words, it is more important for a prospective Carmelite to be willing to be formed by the order as it exists than to find a particular group of Carmelites he likes.

That said, there is nothing to prevent a secular Carmelite from choosing to attend a Catholic parish, recognized as such by the local Catholic ordinary, that exclusively offers the Tridentine Mass and the sacraments according to the traditional Roman rubrics. It is possible to be both a lay member of the Carmelites and a traditional Catholic.